Spyfall is a party game in which players try to expose the one player that is a sneaky spy.
The game at a Glance:
When to use it : Guided reading carousel activity
Who to use it with: Year 6 , Year 5
Skills developed : Inference, questioning, quick thinking
Number of players: 3 – 8
Publisher: Cryptozoic
How does it play?
First I’ll give you a basic run down of the game and then I’ll explain how I use it in the classroom.
The basic rules of the game: The game comes with a (large) selection of cards that have a location printed on them (it may be the supermarket, zoo or space station) and a some spy cards.
Your group will (randomly) choose one of these locations by selecting a deck of cards (each card in each deck has the same location printed on it). One spy card (which does not have the location printed on it) is added to the deck and then each player is dealt a card from the deck. All the players have to keep their card a secret.
The person who receives the spy card will be the spy and everyone else that is playing will have a card with the same location on it. This is the location that the players are at (or at least pretending to be at).
Objective of the game: If a player is the spy , they win if they can find out which location all the players are at. If the rest of the group can find out who the spy is, they win.
The interesting (and fun) way that players figure out who is who is simply by asking questions. One person will start by asking another player a question about the location they are in (e.g. How did you get here today? ). Once that player has answered the question, they then ask another player a question and so on and so forth. Players try to use these questions and answers to work out who is the spy or what location they are at.
If the spy thinks they know where they are, they can declare the location. All players can accuse another player of being the spy by calling for a vote.
These are the basic rules . There are videos that cover the game in much more detail.
It is a great game, lots of questions and lots of laughter!
How I use it in the classroom…
Last year, I wanted to develop my class’s questioning and inference skills, so I started to use Spyfall as part of guided reading activities. At the time, the game had not been released in the UK and I could not easily get my hands on a copy so I made my own version it by grabbing some photos of different locations mounting them on card.
I found it an effective game to use as an activity because it helps develops children’s questioning and inference skills. Firstly, as children (and adults!) become familiar with the game they realise that they really have to think carefully about the questions they ask! You don’t want to ask questions that obviously tell the spy where the location is (if you are not the spy) or questions that obviously show you have no idea where the location is (if you’re the spy). However, if you’re not the spy, you still need to find out who else is at the location with you, so you need to drop hints in your questions.
Then children realise they can ask questions to catch out the spy by including information or details that only someone at the location would know (some of the funniest questions and answers include puns based on the location).
I found that it helped children to think carefully about the question they asked as well as their answers. It won’t develop children’s deep questioning skills, however it gets them really thinking about what information they convey and how they do this.
It is , at its heart, an inference game : players are trying to deduce the spy or location based on the evidence that other players have provided in their questions and their answers.
It is fun way for children to develop their inference skills which they are actively doing when they play the game. They draw on what other children are saying and trying to work out what this tells them about that person’s role.
I often get children to pause half way through the game (maybe 8 questions in) and ask them to note down who think the spy is. This has helped to develop their reasoning skills as they have to write down:
- Who do you think the spy is?
- What evidence do you have for this?
- Why does this evidence suggest they are the spy?
This structure of answering questions fits with PEE (point, evidence, explain/expand) approach.
Spyfall is a fairly simple game (in its mechanics) but a hugely enjoyable and fun game that really develops quick thinking, inference and questioning skills.
NOTE: in the retail version of the game there are a lot of different locations. Some of the locations have woman (and men) in scantily clad outfits (mainly bikinis). Some people may find this a little inappropriate for children. Simple solution : remove those card sets: there are only about 3 of them!
Primary Rules 